Constantin Joffé

Born: 1910

Death: 1992

Biography:

Constantin Joffé was a Russian-French-American fashion and advertising photographer who worked for the magazines Vogue and Glamor in the 1940s and 1950s, during their period of widest circulation. Born in Russia, he moved to France when he was young. Before the war, Joffé worked as a fashion photographer for French fashion magazines. He joined the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the French Foreign Legion in 1939 at the outbreak of war and was made a corporal and put in charge of a 25mm antitank gun. However, he was captured in May 1940 by the Germans during the Battle of France, one of only 800 who survived, most wounded, from a regiment of 2,800 men. He was held in Stalag XVIIA Kaisersteinbruch in Germany as prisoner number 57756. He was released after twenty-one months because his shattered shoulder would not heal and prevented him from doing hard labour. His account of his time as prisoner of war was released in 1943 as We Were Free. In the United States, Joffé found his way to the United States in 1942 and became a professional photographer for Condé Nast with a feature on wartime fashions in 1944.